REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS

Dear Friends in Christ:

In our Confirmation Class of 7th & 8th grade youth on Sunday afternoon, I asked the question: “What is repentance?”

One of the youth quickly answered: “It’s turning away from our sin.”

I then asked her: “If we turn away from sin, what do we turn to?”

She thought for awhile and answered: “We turn to God for forgiveness!”

Paul said it so well: “While we were still in our sins, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) You need only repent, turn away from yourself and your ways, and believe that Jesus Christ died for you, for your sin, for your guilt.

This we can be sure of: when we do in fact turn away from our sins in repentance, there is something to turn to. God welcomes us and God will not turn us down.

Here’s a wonderful story I read this week:
A small boy had been naughty, and his mother punished him and put him to bed. In bed he said, “Now you go away Mommy, I want to talk to God.” She asked, “Is there something you want to say to God that you don’t want me to hear? ”He said, “No, Mommy, it isn’t that exactly; it’s just that if I pray to God and ask his forgiveness, he will forgive me and forget it. But if you stay and listen, you will keep remembering and reminding me of it.”

God is even better than a Mommy on this score. God is so marvelous and great. We don’t deserve it, and God knows it, but God will give us forgiveness anyway. There is a beautiful new life waiting for you just around the corner of repentance, and you are invited to turn that corner.

God says: “You want it? You’ve got it! You’re forgiven!”

Thanks be to God!

—Pastor David Fetter

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